Date:    Fri, 22 May 1998 07:07:45 -0400
<br>From:    Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALE.EDU>
<br>Subject: Re: Rock 'n' Roll
<br>
<br>The question of the earliest citation for _rock and roll_ in its musical
<br>noun usage (as opposed to earlier uses as a sex-related verb phrase) may
<br>be of interest.  The OED has a 25 Dec. 1954 citation from _Billboard_,
<br>contributed to them by me, as its first use.  I have subsequently found a
<br>slightly earlier occurrence, however:
<br>
<br>1954 _Billboard_ 4 Dec. 22  [Alan] Freed is now calling his program the
<br>"Rock and Roll Show."
<br>
<br>Freed is often said to have begun using _rock and roll_ in 1951, but I
<br>have been unable to find any usages in print.  Listings of radio shows in
<br>Cleveland newspapers from the early 1950s do not use the words in
<br>referring to his show.
<br>
<br>
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<br> Fred R. Shapiro                             Coeditor (with Jane Garry)
<br> Associate Librarian for Public Services     TRIAL AND ERROR: AN OXFORD
<br>   and Lecturer in Legal Research            ANTHOLOGY OF LEGAL STORIES
<br> Yale Law School                             Oxford University Press, 1998
<br> e-mail: fred.shapiro[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]yale.edu               ISBN 0-19-509547-2
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